IT - Cassandra's Story
by Shelle
Summary: 7 friends, one town, and an evil demon clown. Read from one of the child (now an adult) perspective. Enjoy!


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Prologue 

Cassandra ran down the street fast, her heart pounding in her chest and sweat coming from every pore, she ran hard through the rain that beat onto her bare face and arms, stinging.

Behind her three boys were in hot pursuit. She reached the corner and looked back quickly, she couldn't see, her glasses were all steamed up and wet to see anything far behind, so she ran on, through the thunder, lightning and torrential rain.

It wasn't the boys that frightened her most but what she believed in. It was following her, watching her every move from right under her feet. Stalking, hunting her it pursued.

Cassandra looked back again, the boys weren't following anymore, they had probably given up and besides, she had no idea what speed she was going at. Cassandra did allot of running especially from the people at school. She didn't have many friends but she was good at two things, swimming and CPR, she ran that fast down the street that when she slipped in a puddle and her body hit the ground, she was surprised to notice that none of the bones in her body were broken.

As she lay on the floor, her blue jeans ripped and scuffed at the knees showing her raw skin, her white blouse half open with buttons missing, near a storm drain, the water trickled off her face, down her neck, down her arm and dripped of her fingers into the grid.

Her hands were all grazed from the rough fall, her shin's bruised and her cheeks bright red from panting. She couldn't move, she didn't want to. It was too late anyway. It had already found her.

Inside the dark storm drain something hissed her name, "Cassandra..........Cassandra.........Give in.......Be afraid.......Let go!!.........Come down with us........we float...We all float and when your down with us YOU'LL FLOAT TOO!!!!!" Cassandra moved her arm away and held her breath, she lay there quietly listening until she heard a voice, a child's voice, to be exact a boys voice.

"Cassandra......Cassandra!! I'm here, it's me your brother, Charlie, don't you remember me? Cassandra......Cassandra I'm scared!........Help me please!"

Cassandra's mother and father had gone away on a business trip one warm, summer afternoon. She and her brother Charlie had been young, Cassandra eight and her brother six, and they had to stay with their grandmother. Weeks passed and they didn't return and then a month passed and there was still no answer, their grandmother had given up hope of them ever coming back.

Charlie had been playing pretend fishing down at Derry river with the fishing pole Cassandra had made him; he didn't come back, the police searched everywhere for the lost boy. After hours of looking they returned with distressing news that Charlie had been brutally murdered near the river. Cassandra rushed straight down as soon as she heard the news to her baby brothers side.

He had crawled out of the water, half alive, half left. The child's legs had been literally bitten off. His jagged Corduroy trousers, full of blood, left a trail of speckled stones all in a line.

The problem was that he was still alive, for hours screaming with agony, screaming for help, no-one came. So he suffered until he bled to death.

Cassandra pulled him up to her and rocked backwards and forward's holding him in her arms. His pale face showed no life, his lips and earlobes were blue and his eyes stared up into the sky.

'Nuh......No!!!' She screamed into the air. For two years Cassandra could not speak of that incident, she had counselling until one day she spoke, on her brother's birthday

"Huh..Happy...B..buh..b..birthday....Chu..Char..lie..." And from then on Cassandra had a terrible stutter because of the shock.

Her parents were never heard of again and they never even returned for the child's funeral. Their own son, maybe the news did not reach them or maybe they didn't care or maybe they just weren't there anymore. She now lived with her grandmother on their own.

Cassandra felt her strength regain. Full of anger and hurt she pulled herself up and stared down the storm drain, face to face with it. It wasn't her brother it was the clown. It looked at her with it's yellow eyes with little black pupils, the size of pin pricks and laughed cruelly.

"You t..took my baby buh...brother you sa...slime! You f*****g b*****d!!" She scolded it.

"Oooh! Big words Cuh..Cassandra!.............I can tell you want Charlie back..........Doncha?" It smirked at her. "But he's with me now.........Quite close..........." The clown licked it's lips. "Actually........I can still taste his blood and flesh in my mouth!..............And it's given my quite a hunger for YOU!!" Cassandra backed away up against a fence her eyes wide with fear as it tried to reach for her, it's finger's outstretched.

"He floats.........We all float.......Hey Cassy want a balloon.......(Snort, chortle)........One balloon coming up!" It gurgled from the storm drain, it yellow eyes with pupils the size of pin pricks looking out torturing her then it's laughter rung thought the sewers and echoed in her mind, nearly sending her to the edge of insanity.

Cassandra's story.

My name is Cassandra Wyatt, and I would like to tell a story that I haven't heard for a luh...long time, of what happened to me and six friends.

It was about twenty six years ago back in a town called Duh....Derry in Maine, we're all grown up now and have moved away but this is what happened and its the last time I tell anyone before I fah...forget about it completely.

*  *  *

It was all over the newspaper's in the morning when I got up. 'Another child dies in bizarre serial killer massacre.' Back then we didn't have a clue what was going on but now its hard to forget the true terror of it.

"You shouldn't waste all your time reading those horrid articles, it will give you idea's." My grandmotherinformed me once but I never paid much attention to her although I wished I had now.

"Pass!!" The boy shouted to the boy bouncing the ball while the rest of his team scattered around waving their arms in the air, every person filled up a space in the sports hall. It was the last day of term at least for six whole weeks and everyone was allowed to do whatever they wanted. The boy ran around bouncing the ball, up and down, he entered the keyhole, this was Basketball, he shot and scored, he had to, he wasn't allowed to miss, his dad was the school's head P.E teacher or as we called him 'Coach death' he worked you till you were dead.

The boys name was Jordan Bashforth, he was the school sports champ, the problem was he was an outcast like me, a dork as some kids called us, just because we were different, anyway popular boys didn't bother with him and when they did it was in words of abuse, they had far more important things to do.

Up in the stands were his friends, later to be mine aswell, starting in age order was Luke another outcast.

Luke Pennington was the third oldest after me and Jordan he was twelve and a half, the type of kid you would think was a bit of a loner this was because he had lost both his parents in a freak accident when their car ran off a bridge. He had never really got over it, and stayed out all night. He lived  with his foster parents now, who also happened to be John's  parents. So in a way the two were like brothers.

Ruth Lomass, (An outcast.) was about twelve years old and tall for her age. A tom-boy, Ruth was no stranger to danger. She was good-looking and had always had a lot of attention from the boys in town. Especially the one who worked down the street in the fast-food store.  

John Pennington, Luke's half brother was next, he was ten and he was the intelligent one of our group. He was the one who the others came to if they had a school problem. He was small and had spiky hair and wore clothes that were way too big for him. This made people laugh at him.

Mary Goldfried was the youngest of the gang. But she was most affected by the cruel taunts of the neighbourhood because she was Jewish. She was eight years old, too young to understand life but old enough to know what was going on.

"So what are you doing later?" Mary asked Ruth leaning her head on her hands under her chin.

"Oh nothing.........Why?" Ruth inquired staring back over her book that she was reading.

"Well my mum says that I can let you come over for tea........Wanna come?" Ruth nodded her head still buried in her book and her mind concentrating on Mary's question.

"I'd love to!" She managed to say.

It seemed ages in the sports hall until I was called into the game to play on the girls team. The only reason I was playing was because my only friend Jordan was playing for the boys and I had nobody to sit with, although I could have been drawing but then somebody would have said 'look at the Billy no mates!' so I joined in with it.

Centre forward, centre forward I was always centre forward. I was the worst shooter ever! It wasn't even my type of game, I would have been happier if this was swimming, I was much better at that.

The whistle blew and I jumped for the ball, the other boy who was marking me caught it but I knocked it out of his hands to another member of my team.

"Thu..thanks..." I said sarcastically, I wasn't really ashamed of my stutter but it sometimes got to me when people made fun, I started rushing over to the ball, it was bouncing back this way. Suddenly from the side, Jordan was pushed into me by Damien, just as I went to score, we were sent crashing to the floor.

"SENATE!!" The coach bellowed at Damien.

"Yeah coach?" Damien said ignorantly, chewing gum. Have I told you about Damien? I haven't? Well here goes.

Damien Senate was in all my classes for three years, he had just turned fifteen and had been kept back a semester (year) if not two because he was unfit to go to the next year. When I first met him, I thought he was lovely. A twelve year old that had been moved from one town to this town, Derry, he had dark hair and dark eyes, he always wore dark blue jeans, a black leather biker jacket, a T-shirt with a skull and crossbones on it saying 'DIE!' sneakers and his hair was always gelled back. But this cool dude had a reputation at his last school, a bad one, Damien had a nice little pocket knife that he got out every time he didn't get his way or a kid annoyed him. I still liked him for a while but I knew he was the wrong type for me. It wasn't until I was fourteen, the year I am writing about, that he found out I still liked him and he started to bug me. He got jealous of Jordan who was only my best friend and started to bully him. Anyway getting back to my story.

"When will you ever leave this grade?" The coach sighed.

"Um.........I dunno? Da you?" All Damien's friends laughed, coach shook his head and pointed at him.

"I want to see you in my office.......Now!! Everyone hit the showers, go home and keep fit this term!" I looked across at Damien and he gave me one of his smiles.

I hated having showers with the other girls but at least the cubicles had shower curtains.

I took my time, anyway there was no rush. I squeezed the conditioner into my hands and rubbed it into my long brown, wavy hair. As I rinsed it out, the hot water suddenly turned to freezing cold.

"S**T!!" I shouted shocked jumping out of the shower. All the girls laughed at me and I blushed bright red. The curtain shower fluttered about.

"Look at that dork!" All the girls giggled and left the changing rooms leaving me on my own.

I wiped my face with the towel wrapped around me. I put my glasses straight and got changed into my tight jeans and a white blouse, I had a spare pair of socks in my bag so I pulled them on a forced my feet into my sweaty trainers.

I stuffed my things into my bag realising I was late for tea. As I stood up I heard music, circus music, from behind me. So I swivelled around to face the showers and saw nothing.

"I must b..be going nuh..n..nuts?" I said slapping my head and giving it a quick shake.

"Lighten up Cassy! Want a peanut?" I turned around sharply to see a clown stood in the showers. It had wild red hair, baggy yellow trousers and orange pom-poms down the front of it's suit surrounded by a black waistcoat. In one white gloved hand held a bag of nuts and with the other it waved at me.

"Did I scare you?" It asked, its eyes wide.

"Kind oh..of." I replied.

"Wanna peanut?" It asked again.

"Nuh..no thanks." The clown threw the bag over its shoulder, and the nuts rolled all over the floor.

"Didunt fink so.........." I wiped my eyes to then see it holding brightly coloured balloon's.

"Hey da ya wanna balloon? I've got all colour's red, green, blue, pink and yella, want one?"

"Thanks, bu..but na..no."

"Let's float Cassandra....." I thought this guy was a right weirdo so I grabbed my bag.

"Going so soon? I haven't told ya about the circus that's in town." It said. The clown head facing the floor looking down.

"I'm luh..late fah.f..f..for tea!" I said. This guy was really creeping me out so I backed up against the door. The clown raised it's head back and smiled at me revealing razor-sharp yellow teeth. I ran out of the changing rooms in horror, not knowing what awaited me.

As I hesitated trying to figure out which way to go, something took hold of my arms from either side. It was Vic and Mark! And everyone knew who they hung around with.........Damien Senate.

"Our team lost because of you. How are we gonna change that?" Damien asked stepping out infront of me and putting two fingers under my chin then lifting my head up. Mark yanked my pony-tail from the back and I let out a-

"Ouch!"

"Don't do that!" Damien said smacking Mark. "I'll forget that you f****d the game up if you do what I say..........." He said popping buttons of my blouse with a knife blade then putting his hand in and under my bra. "But If you don't..." He said pushing the point of the knife into my bare skin. I jerked away from it. "I know you will though, because you like me doing this, don't you?" Mark and Vic laughed, dirtily. He was right in one way or another. "Do what I want and-"

"-I..I know whu..what you wa..want you dirty buh...b*****d!!" I said interrupting him and then kneeing him in between the legs and ran off.

Still scared of the clown, I ran faster and faster as the boys followed and the rain begun belting it down in buckets. Thunder crashed above us and lightning lit up the evening sky for me.

"Don't make this hard for both of us Cassandra!!" Damien shouted after me. "I know you want me!!"

Luke, the boy I told you about who lived down the next street was coming out of the papershop with sweets and a newspaper over his head when I ran past him, he immediately noticed I was scared of something and looked back they way I came and saw Damien and his friends.

"Where did Cassandra go?!" Damien panted furiously.

"She went down there......." Luke pointed down a long back alley. 

"Thanks Tarantula boy. We'll catch you...later." Damien said then running off with Vic and Mark who went off along they alley shouting until they disappeared.

Luke walked off down the street promptly licking a lolly about five minutes later. Suddenly he noticed me at the bottom of the street up against a fence being rained on.

"Cassandra....Cassandra!.......Are you okay?" Luke asked running the last couple of yards up to me.

"D....d..d....drain.................Down d....d...d....drain!!" I stuttered quickly. Luke peered down the drain and held his nose.

"Yeah I can smell it too!" He said waving his hand around.

"Cuh..c..cant you see it!!" I said shocked.

"I cant see it but I can smell it. Dont be so surprised." I couldn't believe this, just a moment ago the clown had peered out of that very same drain.

"C'mon I'll walk uh....run you home." I walked with him slowly and started to explain what had happened since the gym until now.

"A clown.......That's pretty funny!" He laughed unbelievingly.

"I'm Puh..pretty sure that's what I s...s..saw!" I answered him.

"Hey there's a circus in town maybe he's trying to get us to come."

"It isn't working very well." I couldn't believe I said a sentence without stuttering until I started again.

"Hey I was thinking maybe you could come and see it with me, my brother and my three friends, Mary, Ruth and Jordan."

"I nuh..know juh..J..Juh.ordan!"

"Do you wanna come then?" I shook my head.

"I've had eh....enough for wu...one day. And to last foh..forever."

Soon we reached my house at the end of the block, in my tattered clothes. I took out my keys and jammed a copper one into the brass keyhole and wiggled it around until I heard a latch inside click twice.

"Thu..thanks for wuh..walking me. Suh..seeya round Luh...Luh...luh...bye!" I kind of felt ashamed that I didn't want to go with him and turned him down, so I waved and smiled as he walked away.

The door creaked shut and I dropped my bag in the hall, I ran upstairs and got cleaned up into some new jeans and a top with tie died heart on it.

"Guh..grandma I'm home!"

"Good, just in time for tea, I've ordered something from that fast-food store, they should be here any- (DING DONG!)....-minute!" I opened the door to see the pizza delivery boy Paul, the one Ruth liked. I gave him the right amount of money and he ran off.

"Stop lingering in the hall come in! I'm hungry!" My grandma snapped. I brought the pizza in and put it on a plate throwing the box in the bin.

"Er....G..grandma.....Can I go to thu..the circus? With my friends?"

"I wish you would! When is it on?" She asked.

"I'm guh...gonna rih..ring my fuh..rend up." I finished another slice of pizza and rushed upstairs to the phone and sat for a while staring at it. As I did this kept asking myself questions like 'Is he in?' or 'Does he really want me to come or is he just feeling sorry for me?'. I finally summed up enough courage to pick up the phone.

I always kept people's phone numbers under my jewellery box so I pulled it out and started to tap the number's in slowly. Someone picked up.

"Hello. Pennington residence."

"H...hello is Lu....Luke thu...there?" I asked the voice politely.

"Cassandra is that you?" Asked the voice.

"Yuh..yeah! How di..id you guh..ghess?"

"Your stutter. It's me Luke." I went red although he couldn't see me I was so embarrassed.

"Oh! I..I didn't recognise yu..you. I was whon...derin, c..could I still go with you to the circus? That is ih..if you want mu..me to cuh...cuh...come?" I hurried.

"Of course I do!" I sat chatting to Luke about the times and where we were to meet.

"When I got home about half an hour ago, something spooky happened. My room was totally filled with balloon's! I thought my brother was playing a trick on me until I called mum and dad. They thought I was having them on because they couldn't see anything. So I called John but he could see them, but he swore he hadn't put them there."

"Wow! Eh..anyway I'll seeya later."

"Kay bye!" I put the phone down and sat at the window looking out onto the street. My grandma traipsed up stairs and stopped at my door looking in.

"Are you going to sit there until you go out?" 

"There's nuh...nothing better t..to do." I said without looking around.

  "Well you can make yourself useful." My grandma said. I shuddered. Useful? that was another word for hard labour. 

"You can start by cleaning the attic out." She said.

"But-"

"Don't sit wishing the days away, dear. Life's too short."

"But-"

"That's a good girl." And with that she left me too it. Muttering to myself, I started to climb the wooden staircase to the dusty old attic. There was one or two pictures lying around; a couple of drawer's open; a few clothes hanging out of them, I thought it looked just fine.

"I am fuh...fourteen," I said to myself (having no brother's or sister's anymore I talked to myself a great deal). "I mean it's n..not as if I.....I'm a kuh...kid. I d..don't have to tidy up bee...because she says so. It's ba..boring." I wasn't muttering now, I was talking aloud.

"I wuh..want to......I want t..to..." I went over to the mirror, and quizzed it. "Whu..what do I want?" The curly- haired, grey eyed girl I saw before me shook her head. "I just know I'll duh..die if I don't d..do something!" I started to rummage around in some drawers right at the back of the attic. I chucked clothes over my shoulder not caring whether or not they got dusty on the dirty floor. I felt something hard at the bottom but it wasn't the bottom of the drawer, I pushed it and it scraped along the bottom. I decided to pull it out and when I did I found out what it was; a photo album. I sat cross-legged on the floor and flicked thought the pictures. Some of the were really old with the pictures cracked where they had been bent.

"Did you go asleep up there?!" My grandmother shouted up through the floor-board's shattering the silence.                                                                               

Later I strolled over to Luke's house and I met everyone as we went to the circus.

Nothing much happened the next two days.

*   *   *

"John. Do you know where my bike is? I'm going for a ride. Do you want to come if we find them?" John nodded his head at Luke.

"They're in the garage." He answered.

"Oh great! I'm not going down there I hate it!" The garage was the only place John wouldn't go and his brother wouldn't either, because there was no light and it was always wet, also spiders liked to go in dark places and his brother was arachnaphobic which meant he hated spiders.

They opened the garage door and peered in, suddenly something jumped out at them. It was their best friend Jordan, he wasn't afraid of anything.

"I knew you wouldn't go in here for your bikes so I got them for you. They're out front. Hey! Do you guys want to go to the base?" John looked at Luke and laughed.

"Okay let's go." Luke said.

"I want to call for Cassandra first." Jordan said nearly passing my house, he ran up the step's while the other's waited. He pushed his finger on the doorbell and when I herd it I rushed to the door holding the photo album in my hand and a camera looped over my other arm.

"Huh..hi!" I said closing the door behind me.

"C'mon were going to the base."

When we got to the base, our little hide out in the car scrapyard, two people were already there, it was Ruth and Mary.

"Hey guys. I just saw Damien. He chased us around the block but we lost him. I think he saw us come in here so I've got some rocks and water-bombs!" We each got a pocketful of rocks and four water-bombs then we ran back to the last place that they had seen him.

We turned our heads around the bush to look for him and there he was, stood with his friends staring across the road at a moving van, we saw a small child get out of the car and smile at us. Damien and his friends laughed and joked then they saw us.

"Well if it isn't the dork patrol. And his grand dorkness Jordan. GET THEM!!" Suddenly they were coming at us but we bombarded them with water-bombs which made them even more furious. We ran hard and then we lost them and went back to the base.

"Ah...Are you okay?" I asked Mary, who was panting hard.

"Yeah I'm okay are you?"

"Yes bu..but I can't say ma..much for my fuh..photo album." Mary looked at the album, it was soaked, I had just got that album a few days ago, now it was ruined. Luckily the pictures were waterproof.

"Mary! Cassandra!" Called the other's.

"What's wrong?" Mary asked.

"Look at that kid! He's being chased!" Luke strained.

"Oo..Oh nuh.no! Damien Sah..Senate!" I exclaimed.

"Please.. Please help me.." The boy collapsed on the floor near me so I kneeled down and helped him into the front of the base.

"Huh...hey thats not fuh..fair I suh....stutter!"

"Take care of him, while we get rid of those guys." Jordan ordered, I locked the door and watched what happened.

"Where's the dorky scout!?" Damien pointed at them one by one.

"Get lost Senate!" Luke glared.

"What did you say? Huh? Spider boy!" Damien chuckled to himself and then his stupid friends joined in. Luke shuddered.

"Hey cuh..clean the w..wax outta your ee..ears Suh..Senate!!" I shouted back throwing a rock at him, it missed and I wondered for a while did I really want to hurt him? I wasn't like that and why didn't I call him a stupid name like barf breath. Damien stared back at me the corner's of his mouth turned up into a grin. His gelled black hair, dark eyes and freckled checks gave him a menacing look. He always looked at me that strangely, my eyes transfixed on the others who were hurling rocks at his friends. When I turned my eyes back to the spot where he was stood he muttered something to himself.

"C'mon guys let's go." He said walking off.

"But-!"

"Let's go-ho!! I'm bored, we can beat them up one at a time...When they're on their own." Damien growled at them. Then they disappeared over the hill.

"Thanks. You totally got rid of those guys." The boy said gratefully.

"So what's your name scout?" John said looking at the badges on his sache.

"I'm Tim." Said Tim.

"I hope we can all be friends." Said Mary.

 We all started to whisper to each other about letting him in the club, then Jordan cleared his throat.

"I would like to make you a member of the dork's club. It will entail going on various mission's and hopefully completing them. That is....If you want to?"

"Wow. I've never been in a proper club before....... Okay I'm in." Tim smiled.

"Our motto is, 'We must stick together in the worst of situation's and we turn our back's on fear." Jordan said proudly. "I made that up myself." Everyone laughed at his poor attempt.

After, we introduced ourselves to Tim and he told us about himself. Timothy Lee Stark, a young boy, about ten who went to Boys scouts every Thursday, he was new and didn't know many people except for the one's that made fun of him but he had us now... 

We all looked around, Damien and his friend's had gone away.

"Coast's clear. C'mon guys let's go down near the river." Mary said.

"You can come too, Tim." Ruth said. 

"You guh...guy's go ahead. I duh...don't like it down thu...there." I told them.

"Hey..We'll see you later." Luke said.

"Uh huh."

"We'll see you in the club base, you know, here we'll meet you here at five today. Will your folks let you come?"

"My guh....Grandmother will let me cah..come."

"Oh okay." Luke said. "Don't you have any brother's or sister's? They can come too." He asked me. I looked at Jordan unhappy.

"I have to be going now." I said totally ignoring his question. If he knew what had happened then he would have never asked me. All the murder's I mentioned before had all occurred near water, and it wasn't till later until he found out what was wrong, when Luke went to call for me.

"Are you coming out?" Asked Luke.

"Yes. Do I nuh..nuh..need to bring anything?"

"Just yourself." I closed the door behind me and waved to my grandmother through the window.

"Are you okay now? You seemed a bit sad this morning."

"Yes It's juh...just something awful huh..happened."

"It's okay you don't have to tell me."

"But I n..n...n..need to....... My ba....brother was Kuh.....ka.......murdered six years ago today. Down near the ruh....river."

"Oh I'm sorry. I didn't want to ask. I won't tell anyone. Hey we better get going or we'll be late for the meeting." As we walked down the street, Damien and his mates came around the corner.

"We meet again, the members of the dork patrol....Hi Luke, we got a present for you, Mark....." Damien clicked his finger's and all the boy's surrounded us, suddenly a boy with blonde hair stepped forward and took a jar from his bag and held it up to Luke's face. It was a Tarantula. Luke froze with fear and shivered. The two boy's behind us grabbed each of his arm's and as he struggled to get free we were pushed behind some bushes. The boy holding the jar began to unscrew the lid slowly, building up Luke's fear as he squirmed about. Damien pulled Luke's T-shirt forward from the neck and the boy emptied the content's of jar down his top. As he rolled over in agony Damien turned around to face me.

"Hi Cassandra, I've got to get you back for when you hurt me and for saying such nasty things, oh and my offer still stands." He said curling his finger in my hair. "Your different, well maybe not that different." He said removing my glasses.

"Hey the....those are ma..mine."

"Sorry. You can have them back when I'm finished with them." Damien threw them to the ground and stepped on them and the glass cracked into tiny pieces. I couldn't see, everything was blurred, but I could see up close.

"You can't do that!" Said Luke free from the clutches of the hairy spider. He was really creeped out.

"Well....I just did." Damien's hand shot out and winded Luke then I kicked Damien in the shin and he shouted word's of abuse. After some time of rubbing his leg better he turned around to me, I was trapped then he slapped me. I fell to the floor and looked up at the spinning world.

"That isn't very lady like!" He kneeled down to my level then stood up again. "You stay there while I sort your friend out. Then I'm going to let you have a go." He commanded me flashing a grin at me and touching the top of my leg. But it was too late because Luke was running at him. Damien took one quick blow with his fist and Luke was down again,  Damien smirked and pulled out his small pocket knife. My eye's fixed on the blade and widened as it got closer to me. Damien pointed the blade at my windpipe and pushed. I moved my head to the side and he cut me by accident, it stung. Damien gasped and put his hand against my neck. I kicked my foot in between Damien's legs, right where it usually hurt boys and I ran to Luke.

"Get her back here." Damien shouted at the boys. I ran with Luke deep into the wood's and we split up to lose them. I ran until I came to the small river, out of the corner of my eye I saw a pipe and climbed into it. The boy's ran straight past me. 

"I swear I'll get you Cassandra, I'll have you!! Just to myself! Then I'll get rid of your friends! One........by one!" Damien screamed into the air. This was getting serious!

 I felt a sting in my neck so I reached my hand up and brought it back down again, all over my finger's was some kind of liquid but it was too dark to see what it was, I clambered along the pipe to the other end, there in front of me was the river so I crawled out and looked at my hand, it was blood. I hated the sight of blood. I stumbled over to the river bringing water up to my cut. I was down there about fifteen minutes crying and wishing it had never  happened but it seemed longer.

"Your Cassandra aren't you?" Said a voice from behind, I swivelled around to see a boy sitting in a tree.  He was taller than me, maybe older, he had red hair, a mischievous grin, very pale skin and he wore a red tracksuit. He was gorgeous!

"Yuh..Yes. But....Who ah..are you?" I asked.

"My name is.......Well my friend's call my Darkheart because I don't care about anything but that doesn't matter, the only thing you do need to know is that I'm here to help you." The boy jumped out of the tree and strolled over to me.

"Wa....What do you mean?" I asked.

"I stop Damien and those other boy's harassing your friends...........I know what goes on in his mind about you." He whispered in my ear.

"I guh..get the I'm...impression. How? And eh....anyway what's the catch?"

"Ah I was just coming to that. You will return two favours when I ask you to. Whenever or wherever. And you have to promise that you'll do anything. Is it a deal?" The boy held out his hand and smiled. I thought long and hard. 'What sort of trouble could a boy do?' I thought for a while then I took his hand.

"Ih.....It's a deal. And I puh...promise I will reh...return your favours." I replied smiling back at him.

"That's good. Because If you don't.............I'll kill every single one of your friend's." I saw the boy's eye's glow red, It frightened me suddenly I felt my neck stinging again so I reached my hand up again and blood was still coming out. The boy pulled my hand up to his lips and wiped the blood all over them then he licked it off then he touched my neck and the stinging went away, he stepped back.

"Here's your glasses." Said the boy handing me them, 'I thought that they were smashed!' "Oh and one last thing. Don't ever tell your friend's we had this conversation.............Ever!" The boy folded his arm's.

"How ah.....are you go...going to stop thu....them from buh....bullying us?" I asked. The boy clicked his finger's and it echoed in the air.

"Done."

"Just li...like that?" I said shocked.

"Just like that. Seeya around Cass." The boy ran back off along the river laughing to himself, from that moment on I knew he was evil or extremely weird and I wished that I had never made the deal. Then I remembered Luke and I ran back through the bushes to the scrapyard where I found everyone in the base.

"Traitor!!" Everyone shouted at me pinning me to the floor.

"What?" 

"You lured Luke to them!!"

"Nuh....No I d..d..d....didn't!" I brushed my hair off my face and everyone gasped and stood back, I had a black eye.

"We're sorry Cassandra we thought you ran away from him!"

"Actually w..we split uh...up to loo...lose them." Everyone turned around to look at Luke.

 "They threatened her with a knife then they cut her!" I walked off out of the base, upset, Mary and Ruth followed me.

"Cassandra wait!" We all walked up the street then Jordan came running after them.

"Hey guy's, hi Cassandra.........What's that over there?" Jordan asked.

"Hide it's Damien and his friend's." Ruth said jumping around the corner.

"Don't whu...worry their n..not after us." I said remembering Darkheart's promise. Then I noticed that Tim the scout was surrounded by them.

Jordan ran over to sort them out, Ruth, me and Mary stared across the road and they walked away. Ruth and Mary even I thought that he was going to get hit.

Jordan came back across the road with the Tim and we all walked back to the base.

"Hi Tim." Mary said smiling.

"Hi." He replied.

"We saw you yesterday." Jordan butted in.

"Me and muh...my friend got cu...caught today." I Exclaimed  pointing to my black eye.

Soon we came to the scrapyard and climbed up into the truck.

"I would like to welcome you to the dork club...Again. Isn't much of a name but It'll have to do." Jordan said a bit embarrassed.

"Now your in our club?" Asked Mary.

"Yeah..........sure."

"Everyone introduce yourself." Jordan said.

"Hi I'm John, I'm eleven years old, I like bike riding and I'm scared of the dark."

"Hi I'm Luke, John's brother, I'm thirteen and a half, I like pop groups and I'm scared of spider's."

"Hi I'm Ruth, I'm thirteen, I like reading books and I'm scared of water because I can't swim and of growing old because I'm soooo pretty." Everyone laughed or cleared their throat coughing, 'Ahem.'

"Hi I'm Jordan, I'm twelve, I like football and all other sport's because my dad's a coach and I'm scared of height's."

"Hi I'm Mary, I'm eleven, I like going to church on Sunday's, and I'm scared of Rat's."

"Hi I'm Cassandra, I'm fourteen years old, I like anything and anyone except Damien and I'm scared of.....blood." I didn't really hate Damien at first but when he started to pick on us it was different.

"Hi I'm Timothy, I'm ten years old, I like my boy scouts club and I'm scared of anyone who tries to bully me." He said nervously.

After we had all been introduced I told everyone about my meeting with Darkheart down at the river and that I had made the deal with him, not knowing what the consequences would be.

*   *   *

Weeks passed like minutes and we were all best friend's until strange thing's started to happen all at once.

Luke and his brother were sat watching Tele in the front-room when suddenly every light in the house went out, it must have been a power cut or something. But the unfortunate thing was their Mom and Dad had gone out for the evening with all the other parents so we were on our own.

"We'll have to go down into the basement and turn on the emergency switch." Luke said to John shining a flashlight in his face.

"Oh no!"

They made their way over to the door which went down into the basement and started to go down the stair's.

John had decided to stay upstairs, it was way too creepy for him down there.

As he sat on the couch all curled up in a ball he started to hear noises from the basement, and it didn't sound like Luke, John got scared, then he heard laughing echo through the house, he froze with fear and a chill shot up his spine, John hated the dark so much that he started to cry. Suddenly all the light's came on and as he looked around. John saw balloon's floating everywhere and in the middle was a clown stood there laughing at him.

"Luke! What's this all about." John said shocked.

"No I'm not an early birthday present. I'm here to scare you...............TO DEATH!!" He started to scream.

"It's no good your brother can't hear you, he's dealing with more hairier problem's." John rushed over to the door but it was jammed. The clown got closer and closer to him, all he could think of was to get his bike book and say all the names of the bikes he could remember, he read them out one by one and ended at 'Harley Davidson' then the door swung open and he rushed out and slammed it behind himself and looked up to see Luke.

"Oh my god John....Did you...did you see that....!"

"Yeah the clown!"

"How did it get in here?" Luke said gasping for breath.

"I didn't let it in!"

After they had calmed down they got ready to face this......thing.

 Luke held John's hand as they walked up to the door and kicked it open, they looked in the room, it was empty.

"It's gone!" John said. "Don't mention this to the other's they'll say were crazy."

"I was talking to Cassandra the first day I met her, you know, when we went to the circus. Something spooky happened to her aswell, we're not the only one's who have had encounter's with this clown." Luke explained.

"Oh no! The other's!" John exclaimed. "They might be in trouble! C'mon we have to help them or they'll end up like the other kids! Dead!!" John gasped.

The first house they arrived at after they locked up the house was Ruth's house and when they knocked on the door a frightened Ruth answered.

"Come in quick guy's, Mary's here. We are so scared anyway we'll tell you what happened." They all sat down together on the couch and started to listen to May and Ruth's stories.

"I was in the shower and when I got out there was this clown stood there and he started to scare me so I turned around and looked in the mirror, I was getting older and older, I had loads of wrinkles and my teeth were falling out! I backed into the shower and he trapped me in there and the water started to fill up the shower. I nearly drowned! Until Mary came in scared, she had been sleeping at mine tonight. She let me out." Ruth said. She was terrified. Then Mary started her story.

"I was sat down praying in Ruth's room and all of a sudden the virgin Mary's face wasn't the virgin Mary's face. It was a clown face and it talked to me, I thought it had been sent by god, kind of a child's angel because kid's will understand clown's more than they will bright light's and then out of the cracks in the walls all these rat's came out and surrounded me so I jumped on Ruth's bed and jumped over onto the dresser then onto her drawers and jumped out of the door and slammed the door shut and locked it with the key. I ran straight into the bathroom and she was trapped in the shower so I let Ruth out and here we are."

"C'mon the others might be scared or maybe it's already happened to one of them!" I said. So they all got up and went round to the first house they got to, it was Timmy's.

As they walked up to the door, they noticed that it was slightly open so while Mary cowered behind Luke, John pushed it open to see Timothy sat in the corner of the hall sucking his thumb. He was as white as a ghost, so they walked over to him and bent down to his level.

"Tim it's us! It's okay now." They sat him down and asked him what was wrong.

"Well I was coming back from Boy scouts..........." Tim started to cry.

"It's okay! Calm down and tell us."

"........And when I turned the corner there was this clown stood there. It was quite funny at first then it turned and the next thing I knew was that I was being chased by a gang of big boys. They were shouting at me, calling me names like 'Scouty' or 'Girly boy' and 'Mommy's little soldier'. Then they shouted something weird. 'We all float.'........." Ruth was shocked.

"It said that to me aswell!"

"I think we better go round to Jordan's and see what's wrong with him." Said Luke.

Yet again they ran around the block and came to another house and saw Jordan run up the street to us.

"Guy's help!! It was following me!.....A big...C...!"

"Clown! Yes we know."

"You saw it too? It was so scary it made me go on the roof and it sat me right on the edge! And......."

"No time for stories or chit chat. C'mon we have to get around to Cassandra's before something happens to her!" Said Mary worried.

Everyone ran around the corner to my house. Ruth pushed the doorbell several times but there was no answer, upstairs in the my bedroom the clown was scaring me now, I don't think they could hear me scream!   They rushed to the back door. It was open so they creeped in, all the light's were on but there was no trace of me anywhere so they went and looked upstairs and then Jordan heard me screaming from my bedroom.

"Let me out!! Help! Keep away from me!! Please leave me alone! Aieeeeeee!!!" Jordan burst through the door and pulled me out, and when Ruth and john looked in the room nothing was there.

"Come on let's go to the base." Jordan exclaimed running downstairs holding my hand. I was hysterical.

When we got to the base we all clambered inside to hear both mine and Jordan's stories.

"I was just guh...going down for s..something to drink, I had buh..buh..been in my bedroom for thu...the last hour because Duh..duh..Damien had come around ringing on the do...d..doorbell trying to talk to m..me so I was looking out of the wa...window in my bedroom and when I tried to get out I re...realised that the door was suh..stuck and when I turned the knob it fell off. Suh..so I turned around to sih...sit on my bed and wait for grandma to get back so she cu...could open the door from the outside, I saw the c..c..c...clown again, It grinned at me and made me start to ble..ble...bleed, from my mouth, my nose, eh..everywhere, I thought I was going to bleed to death! I was scuh....screaming for ages. 'This isn't half as bad a..as what I duh...did to your brother.' It said to me, without thu..the ss...s..stutter 'You do reh...remember Chu....Charlie don't you?' It ta....teased me, I had a flu.....flashback and then when I came out of it, the clown was lu.....laughing at me.  Then you..........Jordan came in and ss..saved me." I smiled at Jordan and he blushed.

"So it knows what our fear's are and is trying to kill us." John said puzzled.

"So whu...what your tut...trying to say is that thi...this isn't just a muh.....maniac dressed up as a ca...clown. It's pure eh.....evil!" I said.

"Exactly. It's trying to kill all the kids in Derry!" Jordan responded.

"What are we going to do?" Ruth sighed.

"Well if we can't find out where it lives then....Were doomed. It's signed our death warrant for sure!" Timothy said depressed.

"Afraid so guys. Timothy's right! It has to go somewhere." Luke said.

"Yeah but where?" John said shrugging his shoulder's.

"That's the problem. We'll never find out." Mary exclaimed.

"W..Well I don't want to h..hunt it out!" I exclaimed.

"Well how are we gonna stop it?" Jordan said.

"How are we guh...gonna stop it in the fa..first place?" I said. Everyone paused for a moment and everything around was silent. Everyone was too scared to go back to their houses that night just in case it came back and got us when we were asleep, so we all stayed at the base but no-one could get to sleep, we were too scared.

Me and John were sat up looking out of the window when John spotted it and it spoke to him.

"I'm coming for you and your little friend's, I know your dreams. I know your secret's, I know your FEARS!"

I hid back in the truck while John looked out of a small hole in the van door, there was no sight of it. Suddenly he came eye to eye with it.

"Peek a boo! Ha Ha Ha. BEEP BEEP JOHNNY!!" Everyone started to scream as I rushed around the truck locking the doors.

"It's here! It's here. Everyone be quiet!!" Me and John cried. Everyone calmed down and listened.

"Wh..Where is it?!" I asked shaking.

"I think it's under the base!" Whispered Luke. Then the whole truck began to jolt from one side to the other. Mary banged her head on the side of the van and got knocked out.

"Mary!!" Timothy shouted falling over to her as the van was shook harder.

"Is she okay?" Asked Jordan being thrown about.

"I thi...i..i....i..nnnkkk so..o..o...o!!" Timothy jerked.

All of a sudden the van stopped jerking about and a bright white light shot through holes in the floor and a piercing screech went through our ears.

"What ih..is it?" I asked. Jordan and Luke peered through the holes then they pulled back.

"I couldn't see. Could you?" Jordan asked Luke rubbing his eyes but Luke shook his head. The bright light faded away and everything was quiet again.

"I think it's gone." Luke said. Ruth started to get distraught and agitated. 

"I can't take much more of this!! I've got to get out of here!!" Ruth ran to the door and unlocked it then she jumped out.

"No Ruth!! Stay here!" We called back to her. But it was too late she was out there, running as far away from us as possible.

"She's gone I don't believe it! C'mon let's go! We can't stay here all night, It'll creep us out like Ruth." Luke said sighing getting out of the truck and looking around.

"I hope she's gonna be okay. She's my best friend!" Mary said coming too.

"Are you all right, you had a nasty bump." I said wrapping my coat around Mary.

"I think so. I'm a bit dizzy. All I remember was......It." Mary shivered and her arms were covered with goose-pimple's.

"Let's go please. Because if we don't it'll be back!" We all ran from the truck to Jordan's house. It was always safe at his house with his dad around. The light's were on in his house so we waited outside. 

"Where have you been? I've been worried sick!" Jordan's dad hollered at him.

"We went to the base." 

"Oh so your hanging around with that good for nothing gang are you. Well your not seeing them for the rest of the holiday's. I been thinking about sending you to summer camp. I wasn't going to send you at first. You know the one just on the outskirts of town. But now I've decided........Your going. Pack your bag's I'm sending you tomorrow." Everyone who was outside listened in on the conversation.

"Oh no. He's sending him to summer camp!" Exclaimed Luke.

"What are we gonna do now?" John asked.

"Guh...Go to summer ca.....camp! We cu....can get away from that thu.....thing and have fun!" I suggested.

"She's got a point. And besides our parents want some peace and quiet for a while. They'll let us go for sure." Luke said.

"Okay seeya guy's." I said creeping off.

"We better go aswell." Luke said to John a few second's later, then they went and Timothy and Mary walked together to their houses aswell.

*  *  *

We all met up the next day except for Ruth who we hadn't seen since last night, with our bags packed ready for five and a half week's of camping. The bus pulled up and we all got aboard sitting at the back and peering out waving to our parent's suddenly from around the corner Ruth came running with her bag's packed and the bus stopped to pick her up.

"Hi guys!" Ruth said sitting next to Mary.

"I thought you weren't coming." I said.

"I'm not staying here with that creepy clown!!"

"Good point. I wouldn't either." Mary laughed.

"Guy's this is serious, he's after all the kids in Derry for some reason. It's really scary knowing he could be anywhere." Luke said creeping everyone out.

Everyone waved to their families and we set off. 

I looked out of the window as we passed lots of houses and soon we were out in the countryside, the trip looked allot longer than we thought from inside the mini bus. After and hour we passed over a bridge and stopped at a rusty double gate. We were loaded off the bus into a small camp site with wooden dormitory's. A person in short's and a camp top walked into the middle of us and started to talk.

"Welcome to Summer Camp right here at camp Silverlake I'm Jerry Drummond and I can guarantee that you'll have so much fun you'll be bursting with excitement." The camp leader seemed a little dopey at first but he was all right. "Now kids I'm gonna hand out some camp uniform's and then were gonna be ready to start off." The man led us to a small building and started calling out sizes. One by one we got our uniform's and picked up our bags and were sent to different dorms. John, Luke, Jordan and Timothy were in one and Ruth, Mary and me were in the one next door.

I was looking out of the window when I saw another bus pull up outside and all the student's started to unload off the bus, and guess who was on the bus, Damien and his friend's. They just had to come and ruin everything. I was hoping he hadn't brought that pocket knife but there it was shining the sun in my face as he grinned noticing me.

We were all lined up along the wall. Damien was right at the front followed by me and Jordan, Damien's friends Mark and Vic, Luke, two people we didn't know, Ruth, Timothy and Mary and some more people we didn't know. At Jordan's side was Patrick Hocksetter a really really strange friend of Damien's, well we thought that he was, he didn't care if he was nearly as tall as Damien, he wanted to stand wherever he wanted and nobody could push him around because of Damien. 

"Well kid's, were gonna start with a treasure hunt so get into groups of three's and four's." Everyone started to rush around frantically finding partner's then a extra person but we were organised and knew who we were going with. Jordan, Timothy, John and Luke went together and me, Ruth and Mary formed a group.

"You'll all be given a map with clues on the back. Everyone's clues are different so groups will not be able to confer. The first group to find the treasure and make it back to me gets a prize for every person in the group. There are signs on the paths so you won't get lost." The map's were handed out and as soon as we got them we looked at the clues.

I looked around at the groups and I saw Damien and his friends looking at us and whispering.

"C'mon let's read the questions." Mary said to Ruth.

"Hey guys if you get stuck we'll help you." John said smiling widely from one corner to another.

Luke walked over the gravel to me and took me to one side.

"Cassandra I don't think this is a good idea we don't know where your group will be and a group of girls will be more vulnerable than a group of boys. Not to mention a group that includes Damien and Patrick Hocksetter. I don't know why Damien Let's that Flake hang around with them he's........Weird." He kept on glancing at Damien not trying to make it obvious.

"Don't wuh...worry whe...we'll stay away from Duh...Damien s..s..Senate. C'mon eh...everyone else is working out the cu...clues." Luke smiled. So I patted him on the back. When I turned around I glanced around the camp grounds and saw Damien and his stupid friends, trying to sort out the clues, he looked like he was going to explode, this made me feel great so I skipped over to the others smiling.

"Our first clue is really straight forward," Said Luke, "....It says, 'Find the banded rock at the river'." Luke, John and Tim looked up at the sign's which pointed down different cross-roads and found one saying, 'To river' so they followed it. We read ours and it said, 'Red and blue canoe!' So we went with everyone else to the river jogging along.

Luckily Damien and his friends didn't bother us all the way thought the treasure hunt.

We lined up and Mr Drummond the dopey camp leader walked into the middle and started blabbing about how well we had done.

".......And our winner is........Damien Senate and his group, let's give him a big round of applause!" Mr Drummond clapped excitedly and everyone else tutted and clapped unenthusiastically.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Don't be sore losers, there's plenty of other games. But it's dinner now."

During lunch, everyone talked about what they should do with the rest of the day. Tim and Mary said it was a group decision.

"As long as we get back to camp in time it doesn't matter." Luke said.

"So why don't we hike around and check out the trails," Jordan suggested. "Then we can come back and swim."

"Why don't we swim first?" John looked at Ruth. "Oops, never mind," He added quickly, but Ruth was sure they'd brought up the idea intentionally.

I ate my sandwich while John and Ruth talked, the others had finally agreed on checking one of the trails. We cleaned up lunch, put some cans of soda and juice into our knapsacks, and set off.

A main trail led away from the campground and into the thick of the forest, where it was cool and hushed. Sunlight filtered down through the branches, making lacy patterns on the carpet of pine needles. After about fifteen minutes on a narrow path, we came to a clearing. Standing next to Luke, I could see two or three paths branching of in different directions.

"Do yu...you reh....remember any of t..this?" I asked Jordan who had been here before.

"Yeah," He said looking slowly around. "But I have a strange feeling." I stared up into the canopy and was blinded by the sun.

"So why da...d....did you decide tu....to come bah....b...back here?" I asked Jordan. "Happy mu....muh..mem....stories?" He looked at me, his hazel eyes almost green that day, matching his shirt. 

"I came here two summer's in a row when I was younger," He said. "The first time was great."

"What about the seh...second time?"

He thought for a minute, as if he was choosing his words. "Not as good," He said.

"How cu...come?" I asked.

"I wish I could tell you, Cassandra."

He sounded sad, I thought. What was going on? "Why c...can't you.........."

"Tell me?...Because I'm not sure."

"Not sure ah....about what?" I gave my head a shake and laughed a little. "It feels lie...like your taw....talking in rih......riddles or something." 

Up ahead Jordan had started of on one of the trails and we followed him, Mary and Tim tagging along at the back.

Jordan slowed down to stop and look around. Off to one side of the path was a log. The branches of the tree drooped low, making the log seem like it was inside a cave. Taking my hand, Jordan walked over and ducked under the branches. I followed Jordan and we came out of the branches. The others hadn't seen us stop and I could hear their voices getting fainter and fainter as we walked on.

Jordan leaned forward, his elbows on his knees, and frowned down at his sneakers. Some pine needles had caught up in his laces, so he picked them out and twisted them around his fingers.

I wished he'd hurry up and say what he wanted to say, but I could tell he was trying to work something out in his mind. So I picked up a pinecone, so I'd have something to keep my hands busy. Then I made myself quiet and wait.

After a moment Jordan stood up straight. "A second ago, you asked me about the second summer I spent here," He said. "I said it wasn't great." I nodded. "That was kind of and understatement," He said. "Oh for a while it was really fun, just like the first time. It's a great camp---It's not as modern as the others, I guess. No swimming pool, no computers, no tennis courts. But its more relaxed, I think. I mean, your day's not scheduled down to the last second. You get some time to yourself." I laughed a little, I couldn't help it "You suh..sound like your tut.....trying to sell me the puh....place."

"I guess I do. Sorry 'bout that." He smiled and tilted his head back, looking up at the network of branches above us. "Okay, where was I?"

I didn't think he'd forgotten. He was just having trouble getting to the point. So I told him anyway. "You were ah...about to eh..eh..explain why the suh..second time wasn't as guh..good as the first."

"Right, okay......" Suddenly from around the other side of the bush we heard giggles, it was the others.

"What was it? Oh yeah......The first time was better than..Ha   Ha The second!!" Ruth swept the tears from her eyes with her fingers as she laughed with the others.

"What was better the first time?!" John laughed.

"Will you guys calm down and I'll explain." Jordan said seriously. 

We all stayed quiet. "Well something happened that second summer," He said. "I don't mean I got homesick or didn't pass my swimming test or anything like that. I mean something went wrong. And it was bad." Whatever had happened, we knew Jordan still thought about it, and we knew it still bothered him, maybe even haunted him.

Haunted was the right word for the way he looked now. His lean face was pale under its tan and his eyes stared off into the distance, at something we couldn't see.

We didn't know what memory he'd pulled from that summer, but we started to dread hearing it.

Finally Jordan looked over at us. "It was bad," He said again. "Somebody was murdered. A boy. Torn limb from limb......."

_The sky was just beginning to get light when the campers crawled out of their tents. They were all the same age, nine and ten years old. A counsellor joined them, and they stood together in a little clump for a minute, yawning and shivering in the cool air. Then they started walking away from the campsite, while the rest of the campers slept in their tents. They were looking for dry twigs for a camp-fire._

_It had rained hard during the night, and finding dry wood wasn't that easy. Their search took them deeper into the pine forest._

_The carpet of pine needles was soft and slick. One of the campers decided to see if he could slide on them. He took a running start and actually slid a few feet. But then his front foot caught on something- a stump, maybe, or some twisted undergrowth. Before he could stop he went tumbling out of sight._

_The counsellor and the other campers called to him to make sure he was all right. There was no answer. They shouted again, and still there was no answer. They hurried along, at the edge of the deep gully. His hair and the back of his shirt were covered with pine needles, but he didn't look hurt. He was just sitting there. He had his knees drawn up to his body and his arms were wrapped around them holding on tightly. He didn't answer when the others talked to him. He kept staring down into the gully. So finally, everyone else did too._

_The trees weren't as thick here, and long shafts of sunlight reached down into the gully. At the bottom was a fallen tree. Its trunk was huge, partly buried in decaying leaves. A squirrel scampered along its length, stopped and eyed the campers nervously. They didn't notice._

_They'd finally seen what the other camper was staring at._

_Slammed up against the trunk of a tree was a body, wearing jeans and a T-shirt. One of the feet was bare and its arm and the other leg was missing, blood stained the leaves beneath it. The shirt was royal blue, with silver letters on the back spelling **Camp Silverlake .**_

_Everyone was still. So still, the squirrel must have decided they were harmless. It scrabbled along the trunk another foot. Then it hopped onto the back of the body and looked up at the campers again._

_Someone screamed. It was thin and high pitched at first, but then it got stronger and louder. The squirrel ran off and the birds grew silent. When the piercing scream died down, the only sound was the sighing of the wind high above in the tops of the pine trees and-_

Jordan scrambled off back to camp with everyone else following totally spooked, afraid to look back or even hang around in the pine forest and longer. As we reached the centre of the camp everyone tumbled in a heap on the gravely carpet of stones panting and huffing.

"I didn't like the sound of those leaves crunching nearer to us!" John said rubbing his knee's.

"You big babies! Stupid dorks! Ha Ha Ha!!" It was Damien and his friends. They had been listening in on our conversation and the story Jordan was telling us. "Got spooked out!" He laughed.

"Why do you huh..have to be so ih..immature?!" I shouted at him trying not to get upset and stutter. Damien raised his hand in the air and I put my hands over my face. Nothing happened. I took my hand's away and he had walked away.

"You stood up to him Cass." I heard from somewhere and it wasn't the guys. There was only one person who had called me Cass. I looked in the nearby trees and saw nothing but leaves, so I shook my head and helped the others up.

"I wish I could say that to Damien." Tim said.

"Yeah! You really told him off!" John giggled.

"I guh..guess I did."

Later me, Ruth, Mary and Tim were out sat near the fountain in the campsite grounds, because John, Luke and Jordan had gone on a nature trail. We needed a rest.

"I want to go to the river, anyone gonna join me?" Ruth said.

"That's a good idea!" Mary exclaimed jumping up.

"I'm in...." Tim said a few minutes later after Mary had sat down.

"Yeah.......Cuh...C'mon lets go." I got up and started to walk off down to the river. As we walked along we hummed to ourselves. When we got to the river I looked across and saw a large building behind the overgrown tree's and boggy marshes, probably the main sewer duct to Derry's pipes, I swear I saw that god damned clown again beckoning me over with **it's ripely coloured fruit balloon's then it walked on the water back to that dank dark place, we  listened carefully and could hear laughing so we hid behind a bush and peeked over.**

"Oh my god look!! It's Damien!" Ruth said amazed. Why was she so surprised and shocked to see them. So I peered over the bush and the first thing that came to my mind was, 'Oh dear god! Why are they naked!' before darting to a closer bush I realised that they were only half naked, they had their shirts on and their shorts and underpants were just simply pulled down to the top of their sneakers as if they had to 'Go number two', except who had ever heard of four boys going number two all at the same time? We had been exposed to the boys several times getting down to that bush so we weren't going to risk being seen so instead of retreating we waited for them to finish what they were doing.

Although Mary, Ruth and Tim felt a certain shameful curiosity, what on earth were they doing? We all thought.

Mark was more or less facing towards our direction. Patrick Hocksetter was on Damien's left. Vic had his back to me. Ruth observed the fact that Vic had an extremely large, hairy ass, and half-hysterical laughs bubbled up her throat. Mary clapped her hands over Ruth's mouth and pulled her behind the bush, she was struggling to keep the giggles in.

"Weve guh..got t.to get outta hu..here...." I whispered. We looked back, Mary still holding Ruth's mouth. We could see more clearly now. Damien and Vic were facing this way, Mary, me, Ruth and Tim stared down we had seen their things! These were the first things Mary, maybe Ruth and me had ever seen. Us girls now observed that their things were little tubes that hung down between their legs. Vic's was small and hairless, but Damien's was quite big and had a cloudy black fuzz of hair all over it. If they knew that we had seen their things they would hurt us. Badly.

Mark bellowed suddenly, making us jump, and Damien yelled, "Three feet! It was three feet!! Wasn't it Mark?" I knew what they were doing now. We had learned about this in science. When a gas is lit it goes on fire. And everyone know's that there is Methane gas in trumps. They were measuring each others farts! 

"You burned my ass off Vic!!" Mark groaned rubbing his behind.

We all started to laugh.

"Hey! Where the f**k are those laughs coming from?" Damien shouted.

Ruth being scared easily ran from the bush to get away. But they had seen her.

"It's the losers!! Get them!" Damien shouted to Mark, Vic and Patrick. So they pulled up their shorts and ran over to catch them.

Tim and Mary scattered aswell. Patrick ran after Tim. Vic ran after Ruth and Mark ran after Mary. As I watched they ran deep into the woods.

I turned around and looked through the bushes. Damien had gone.

'Oh no!!' I thought. 'He could be anywhere!' From behind I heard crunching sounds then a twig broke as if it had been stepped on. It had. And there was Damien looming over me grinning, his shorts open at the zip as I swivelled round and looked up at him.

"I thought you wouldn't show.......Anyway alone at last." Damien said grinning as I backed up against the bush, ".....Did you enjoy what you saw?" I shook my head.

Damien crouched down and leaned in closer to me, with his face up close to mine, he breathed heavily sucking air in through his mouth, and took out his pocket knife from the pocket in his shorts. 

His looked down at me, and drew closer to me and started to kiss me fiercely, as I turned my head on its side to look for someone he started to kiss my neck.

"HELP!!!" I shouted. He closed my lips together with his fingers and muttered a little, 'Shut up!' now he was getting rough because I wanted to get away. He grabbed a long white handkerchief from his pocket and gagged me around my mouth so I couldn't shout for help. 

I knew what he was going to do! He was going to rape me, right there and then!

I tried to push him away but he roughly jerked back on me when my gag loosened.

"PLEASE!! HELP ME!!" I shouted out. 

"Shut it!!! Just shut it! I'm so close this time!! I said shu-" From behind Damien he had been hit!

The person behind Damien's limp body was not someone I expected to see.

"Duh..."

"Sssh! C'mon......" He said pulling me to my feet and unfastening the scarf that bound my hands together.

"You suh...haved muh-" But before I could say anything else I was in a canoe being rowed into the middle of the lake, until we stopped.

"Why are they pah...picking on us?" I asked Darkheart crying.

"They won't hurt your friends, just you." He said inspecting his nails for dirt.  

"Buh...hut why?" 

"Because in our little deal don't you remember me saying, and I quote 'I stop Damien and those other boy's harassing your friends......'." He was right.

"Yes." I said looking at the bottom of the boat. "I wish I hadn't made the deal with you....." Darkheart got up and stomped the bottom of the boat with his foot. 

"You can't back out now......!" He said his voice deep trembling with anger. "......We made a deal!-"

"That I don't want to carry on with!" Darkheart was steaming with rage. He stomped his foot against the side of the boat but it slipped and he banged his head on the side and fell in! 

A few seconds passed, then a few more and there was no sign of him,

"This isn't funny!" I shouted. I looked at the water and bubbles begun to emerge then they stopped leaving the water still. 

'Oh my god! I killed him!' I thought to myself. Realising what I had done I dived in, swimming around I spotted him sinking to the bottom of the lake so I reached out with my hand and brought him back to the boat. By the way he was coughing, hacking and spluttering I knew he was okay.

"You......you saved me!" He said shocked.

"You would have done the suh....same for me.."

"You would have been better leaving me if you knew what was good for you."

"I don't care. Your suh..still a person or whu..whatever you are........Hey I owe you one favour now. And you owe me one."

"Okay. I'll let you off." He smiled slyly. "But please I didn't ask you to save me. It's still two..."

"Well.....oo..okay." I shook his hand, his skin was strangely soft and I couldn't help just holding it a little bit longer. When I looked up at him I released his hand in embarrassment.

"Sorry." I muttered quickly, blushing. Darkheart looked really confused I didn't know whether he was going to laugh, cry or go in a mood. He was trying to work something out.

"I need a favour now." He said breaking the beautiful silence between us. I noticed that the sky was turning a dark starry blue. 

"What?" I replied.

"I want you to throw the oars out of the boat and pretend to be stuck."

"But how am I to guh..guh..get buh..hack? Swim?" 

"Your friends will come along."

"There ar..are'nt any uh..other boats!" I said cautiously.

"Trust me...." I looked at him innocently. It was as if he had complete power over me so I agreed. I tossed the oars out and screamed for help. Darkheart slid into the water and hid.

Suddenly Tim, Ruth, Mary, Luke, John and Jordan came running to the side of the lake, the boat started to sink and I started to worry and panic.

"Oh my God!!" Ruth shouted.

"Weve got to save her!" Luke replied loudly.

"There aren't any boats...." John said running down the bridge.

"I'll swim over and get her.." Jordan said jumping in.

"Jordan be careful." Tim shouted pointing to something in the lake.

Jordan clambered onto the bridge with a startled cry. "Did you see that thing!" He gasped hysterically.

"What was it?" Mary asked.

"It.....IT!!!" Jordan screamed pointing to the water.

My boat was sinking like crazy and I had tears streaming down my face. Whatever that thing in the water was, it had probably already go Darkheart.

"Guh..Guy's, please ha...help me!!" I stuttered desperately.

"We'll get the-" Luke was stopped when Damien appeared.

"Cassandra!!" He shouted across the lake uncontrollably. "You stay here I'll get her." Damien removed his leather jacket and dived in swimming ferociously. He reached the boat and just as it went under completely he pulled me into the water and swam me back to shore. He pushed me onto the bridge and just as  he was getting out onto the bridge, I was about to thank him when he took the god damned pocket knife from his jacket pocket and lunged at us wildly. He raised the knife in the air but was sent to the floor by a blow from John's fist. The only way out was the water.....

"I'll kill you...All of you!!" He pulled himself up and grinned at me wiping blood from his mouth. "But me and Cassandra have unfinished business...Don't we?" He laughed unstabley. "Don't you remember what we did? Have you already told them?" The other's wondered what he was talking about.

"You're a liar Duh…Damien!!" I screamed. 

"Cassandra you'll never forget me. I mean you'll always remember me as your first time....." The others looked shocked.

I felt my anger building up inside myself and I felt myself raging towards him my heart burning and pounding in my chest like a hammer. I fought with him on the floor.

"Go!! Quick!!" I shouted wriggling around, the others ran past but Jordan pulled me away and led me through the forest. At the end of a path we found ourselves in a clearing back at the camp grounds. 

It wasn't till two days later when Patrick had been killed in a horrific accident when Damien chased us into the forest threatening us again with that knife, he had all of us running scared when suddenly we reached the top of a large gully. We slid down the steep sides and Damien was still hot on our trail. He tumbled down the gorge aswell following us like a shadow, but when he caught up with all of us he froze in horror. What had he seen? We all wondered panting heavily. He ran to the side of the gully but it was too deep to climb out of. We turned to where he was looking and saw two red eyes peering out of a deep, dark cave. The creature blinked and growled. We used all our strength to climb out. I gripped to the wall digging my fingers into the soil and hurling myself up a bit at a time. Damien was still at the bottom when I reached the top and looked in.

"Damien!!" I screamed piercing the air and making birds scatter everywhere. The others ran back to camp to get help while I sat at the edge trying to reach him with a long thick branch.

"Grab it!!" I shouted frantically.

"It's not long enough...." This was the first time I ever saw him genuinely innocent and scared. "Please help me Cassandra." I put my hands over my eyes protecting myself from the sight or helpless Damien's face as the creature appeared. "I'm so sorry!! Oh god! Arrgghhh!!!" He shouted. I fainted on the floor. All I felt now was nothingness and when I woke up I feared to look. It was okay I was in hospital back in Derry. My grandmother explained everything.

After Damien had got himself out of the gorge his hair streaked with a single line of white through his black hair and his face pale he had taken me back to camp and admitted to murdering all the missing children in Derry and Patrick Hocksetter too, he was taken back to Derry for counselling before he was sentenced and then locked up in Juniper Hills a mental asylum for unstable people. But that wasn't the last time we saw him.

As for me and my friends, when I got out of Derry hospital we decided to kill.....IT once and for all!- 

_________________________

Suddenly Cassandra's silence was broken by a ringing, it was her phone. She left the story of that fateful summer on the computer and went away leaving it behind, her memories of that awful place far, far away, but after all it was twenty two years later and she had stayed in Derry to become a beautiful young Psychologist.

Cassandra picked up the phone and cleared her throat, and answered.

"Hello Wyatt residence?" She said cheerily.

"Hi Cass, guess you lost your stutter, do you remember me?" Cassandra dropped the phone like a lead weight and horrible memories started flushing through her mind! "If you do, how about one of those favours you owe me now?....." Laughter rung on the phone.

Up in another part the country in Los Angeles a team of American Footballers were in the showers whistling away to their hearts content they had won another game and were nearly in the semi-finals. Suddenly the phone went and their manager picked up.

"Hello, red coyotes manager how can I..........Yeah sure lady hang on HEY SEVEN!!" One of the footballer's whizzed around, he was tall with dark spiky hair and had strong features. "......There's a dame on da phone she says somet like 'Lucky seven, need's ya?' I dunno, crazy gall, I'm sorry he's a little..-" Suddenly he was cut of by the footballer. "Hey John do ya know her?" John's face was lit with a big grin and he sighed.

"Sure do!" The manager went out of the room to give him some privacy. "Hello? Er.....Mary, Ruth?" For a while no one answered.

"......Juh..john!! Oh ma..my god!!" The voice exploded.

"Oh S**T!! Cassandra is that you? What's wrong!!" He gulped.

"I'm just so scuh..scuh..ared!! I.......I.....!!" Cassandra was breaking up. "I didn't know...huh..who else to call eh..except you!"

"Where are you?"

"Duh...Duh..Deh..D.."

"Derry!!" John shouted. "You know that you aren't safe there! I thought you moved!"

"Call the others, I..I've booked some ruh..hooms at the Peh..Pegasus hotel, get here for tomorrow evening, ih..it's impo...ha..ha..hant!!" She put the phone down hysterically.

"Derry..." John wiped the sweat from his his head in horror.

*  *  *

"......My god John it's been some years!!" Cried the voice on the phone pathetically.

"We need you! I got a call off Cassandra an hour ago, she seems pretty f****d up.."

"Cassandra.....She's in trouble?" The voice asked.

"Yeah she was stuttering like Elmer Fudd..."

"No, Elmer Fudd has a lisp, it's-"

"Porky Pig."

"Yeah I......Remember." 

"Hey.....No Jordan don't think about  those memories...." But It was too late the middle-aged athletically built man once known as the young sports player Jordan Bashforth's mind ripped into a flashback...

_'No....it's Porky Pig that has a stutter not Elmer Fudd, that's a lisp. He says thing's like 'You wasskuly Wabbit!'.' Jordan laughed at Cassandra._

_'I duh..don't care about my stutter, and anyway I'm not that buh..buh...bad am I?' Cassandra said worriedly sitting on the porch to the wooden dormitory, looking across at the fountain in the middle of the camp ground's._

_'Nah you're pretty cool...for a girl who fancies Damien..ha ha ha..' John and Jordan broke out laughing at Cassandra as she got up and started to chase them._

'Hey I don't like him.....That isn't fair, hey!!' John and Jordan had disappeared around the back of the fountain.

_'Help!! Jordan Help me!! Arrghhh.....' Birds fluttered everywhere, the screams were coming from behind the boys dorm's. Jordan ran around to help who-ever was calling. It was Patrick Hocksetter._

_'Oh god help me!! Jordan...HELP!!' Patrick was screaming but Jordan couldn't believe what he was seeing, Patrick was being attacked by birds, their sharp beaks pecked at his raw skin tearing it away in big chunks. Blood streamed from his mouth like a tap that was turned on full. It stained his clothes and made a large pool on the floor but still the birds pecked away swallowing the skin whole. Jordan turned and fled, he was sick at the thought of it, the camp medics thought that it was a bear attacked but Jordan knew better and he would never let anyone know but his friends._

".....I'll come, if you get there before me, protect her, I'll be there as soon as I can." Jordan put the phone slowly down and started to pack his bags. On the mantle shelf, Jordan picked up a newspaper clipping of a young woman, her long, brown wavy hair strung around her face and she smiled lightly.

"Cassandra." He whispered sighing to himself.

Down in Hollywood, Universal pictures were shooting Louis Penn on set in a interview about his new movie.

"Well, this time I've decided to make a horror film, different to my other serious roles, it's called...." Louis went on to talk about his movie until they were off the air and Louis went to his trailer.

"..Er Mr Penn there's someone on the phone for you. He says something about 'lucky seven'?"

"Could you wait out side?" Louis asked.

"Sure boss."

"Hello?"

"Is this Luke?"

"....Who....who is it?"

"Shoot some baskets?"

"Jordan!!" At first Luke was pleased to hear from him but then grimace clouded over his face. "What.....What's happened?" He said sombrely.

"It's Cassandra...."

"Where is she? Is she okay?"

"Your not gonna like this.....She's...in Derry.." Luke gasped for air and his eyes widened-

_-'Hey John come on hurry up get on!!!' Luke screamed as John dashed towards his bike._

_'Go!! Gooooo!!' John shouted, he was shivering with shock and held on tightly to Luke tightly, scared for his life, they went that fast that they forgot what they were riding away from._

"Luke....Luke?" Jordan's voice faded back into Luke's mind and he swept his head.

"Is she?"

"No she's okay but John said that she didn't sound to happy on the phone, you know that she got rid off her stutter?"

"John called you?"

"Yeah, well she's stuttering really bad. We've been arranged to meet her at the Pegasus hotel, tomorrow evening. Will you come?" Luke paused.

"Yeah sure." Luke put down the phone and then picked it up again dialling number's in and curling the wire around his finger as he waited.

"Hello, you have reached the Lomass residence, unfortunately Miss Lomass is busy at the moment but please leave a message after the beep." Luke recoiled from the phone and slammed it down, his hand slapped his face. He hated that word ever since...

_'Beep Beep Luke!!' The wild red hair the-_

No he wouldn't think of those memories again, they had dwelled inside him like an animal in a cage, ready to be set loose, some wild beast with-

_Razor sharp teeth, and a red painted grin across it's face, laughing, laughing at him from behind those balloons.....those balloons, red, yellow-_

Then the memory faded and he dialled the number again, the message was repeated,

"Beeep! Hello...Er Ruth you may not remember me, it's Luke, 'Lucky Seven' need you. Come to Derry for tomorrow evening at the Pegasus hotel."

"....LUKE!! Luke wait it's me I'm here!"

"Ruth?"

"Yeah, yeah what's up, did you say Derry?"

"It's so good to here from you after all you run that big fashion designer company-"

"We don't have to go to Derry do we?" She stressed.

"I'm sorry, it's Cassandra she in an awful state, Jordan and John are going, and so am I."

"Okay..Okay...I'll come."

"You know where to come."

"Hey.....I've missed you guys."

"Me too. Will you call Mary and Tim?"

"Well they're not that hard, after all they're both Stark's now. Ha ha."

"Oh yeah. Anyway seeya tomorrow."

After they had all moved away to get jobs and find a living, Tim and Mary had been seeing each other for awhile, they had bought a house in the Burbs and had decided to get married, they had been married six years but Mary and Tim decided never to have children, they told each other that they would not let their children face up to the curse on their lives and let it ruin their child's. They bought a small shop and opened a small Pharmacy, in Tim's spare time he run the local Boy scout organisation and fulfilled his life long dream.

Tim was sat in the front seat of the car with Mary in the passenger seat when suddenly their mobile phone rang.

"Hi this is Tim, how can I........My god, Ruth? Ruth Lomass? How are you doing?...I uh....what?" Mary's face was lit up with a huge grin and she tried to get the phone.

"Did you say..(gulp)....Deh..heh.heh..ry.." Tim shuddered at the sound of the word Derry. "I'll try......Okay......Bye." Tim's face was a shocking white and he looked at Mary blankly as she returned it.

"Derry..." Mary and Tim's eyes were transfixed on each other.

_'....It's eyes were yellow and it looked at me and growled, don't leave me plea.he..he..hease. I'm so scared!!' Tim cried into Mary's arms as she held him tightly, to him she was an Angel, his saviour. 'Don't ever leave me, you're the only one who understands me.' Tim had been practising his knotting skills for his rope tying badge when it had happened. He promised Tim to help him get the badge if he went to the circus, but Tim being a good boy didn't go, the clown was angry and tied him up his own knot's and was about to kill him when Mary came along to rescue him. He fled with her back to the base where he explained to her what had happened. After that hey spoke to each other about what they wanted to do when they were older._

_'Mary, do you like me?' Tim said shyly._

_'Yeah.' She answered Tim also shyly._

_'Can I....kiss you?' He asked rubbing his neck._

_'I...suppose so.' Tim leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek quickly. Tim and Mary went red. They talked about everything, even-_

-The dead-lights!

Coming towards them, Tim's vision flew back to the road and the car screeched as the dead-lights approached brighter and brighter they burned blinding them, to death. The car crashed into the truck it's _head-light's on full blast. Their deaths were quick and pain-less but the __dead-lights were still there._

*  *  *

"John, is that......it is!!" Luke ran towards John and tried to rugby tackle him, John took hold of Luke and playfully forced him down. "Been working out?" Luke laughed, he usually could win John but now he was an American Footballer, it was harder.

"Aww, bro I've missed you, why didn't you call?"

"Well I've been busy with my movies and you've been working so hard at your games, your having a great season so I didn't want to bother you."

"I'm never to involved in a game to talk. Hey I've heard the write-up for the new film your making, sound's pretty cool, even the critics give it ten out of ten."

"Don't be so surprised, it's another horror, I only seem to be good at playing in those sort of thing's."

"Bad childhood experiences?" Asked a voice at the door. It was Jordan.

"Jordan!!" They both smiled.

"Beep beep!!" Jordan laughed.

"Been to any circus' recently?" Luke asked his eyebrow's wide and a huge grin on his face. Jordan put his back to them and pulled something out of his coat, then he turned around and put on a smarmy accent.

"Well actually, it's me Pennywise." Jordan had put on a red nose tied with elastic, the other two backed away and laughed.

"Oh no. What are we going to do! Oh please help me, I am so afraid." They all broke out in a fit of giggles and held their stomach's tightly trying not to get stitches, as Luke sarcastically joked about Pennywise.

"Oh I feel thirteen again." Jordan sighed occasionally breaking out laughing.

"It's the reflection that's coming from Luke's solar panel that's making you ill, hey bro, do you wax?" John and Jordan started joking about Luke's bald patch, although it was only small and barely noticeable, John took a napkin from the table and pretended to polish Luke's head.

"Hey." He laughed.

"You three are so immature." They all turned around and smiled again.

"Ruth!!" They cheered. They all ran up to her and gave her a hug.

"And modelling our new designer suit is our lovely bookworm, Miss Ruth Lomass, give us a twirl huh?" Although she was only wearing a T-shirt, jeans and trainers she happily obliged and spun around.

"Well well well and double well."  Ruth smiled at them all. "What a bunch of handsome old men, tell me, are you married? Were you on the front of last month's playgirl?" John stepped forward and flung his arm around her shoulder's.

"On behalf of everyone else I'd just like to say, we've missed you. And I've missed everyone else although three of them aren't here yet." John looked down at Ruth. A waiter suddenly emerged from the doorway and entered the room.

"Is this the 'Seven' group?" He asked.

"Yes." Jordan said putting his drink down on the table quickly.

"We just received a phone call, a Miss Wyatt apologises for her lateness, there has been a problem at her work, Juniper Hills?" The others stared at each other, they were terribly shocked.

"Thankyou." Ruth replied. The waiter disappeared then popped his head back round.

"She said you can start without her."

"It's okay we'll wait." Luke said.

"What on earth is she doing working at Joon's?" John almost shouted.

"I think this has something to do with our past." Ruth said. "I mean she couldn't leave Derry, she wanted to watch out for us. To see if IT came back."

"It was more than that." Luke said.

"She wanted to look out for Damien. She fell in love with him." Jordan said. Then he looked around. "Do you have this evening's paper?" Asked Jordan frowning. A waiter pointed to the coffee table and then went with his nose in the air. Jordan leaned over and pulled it off the small, wooden table and shook it straight. He read the first page out aloud as the others talked.

"....Panic struck through Derry, Psychiatric unit at Juniper Hill's...Hey that's where Cassandra work's! The nut house!!" The other's stopped and listened to the rest "...When one of the patients escaped from a therapy session, killing four guard's simultaneously. Police have no idea how but the patient is out and dangerous. If you have any further information...Blab blah blah......Do you think Cassandra's invol-"

"No....I'm not." Jordan's glance fixated from the paper and onto the woman stood in the doorway, his burning desire growing stronger. Her eyes were red around the rims and she looked as if she hadn't slept in day's. Jordan ran over and caught her just as she was going to collapse from tiredness.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Whoa, you did get old didn't you." She laughed. Jordan sat her in a chair at the table then they all started talking and laughing about being young.

"We used to have so many good times when we were young didn't we....Wait....Where's Tim and Mary?"  Ruth asked suspiciously.

"I'll go and call." Cassandra went away and they carried on talking.

"We would have had a better time if that bully, Damien Senate hadn't interfered, he was crazy, don't you remember, he threatened to kill us." Luke said angrily slamming his drink on the table and leaning back in his chair rebelliously, like a spoilt child.

"Yeah he was obsessed with us!" John replied.

"No, just with Cassandra." Jordan answered as if jealous at the thought of it, he glanced around and then saw Cassandra stood in the doorway again.

"We were just talking about Damien." John said.

"That's not a subject I'd like to discuss at this moment in time." She sat down frustratedly.

"Cassandra what's wrong?" Ruth asked.

"I'll tell you what's wruh...wro..huh.hong....Tuh..Tim and Mmm..Mary are duh..duh..du..dead!!" Ruth's hand's clapped over her mouth and John started choking on his drink, Jordan and Luke turned a deathly white.

"When-" 

"Yesterday evening, straight after Ruh..ruth phoned them in their car, they collided suh...traight into the front of a seh..seh..semi-trailer, they were kuh..killed instantly."

"Oh god! It's already happening, that f****r Pennywise is killing us off already." Jordan said.

"Is was an accident! Puh..puh..puh...-"

"Pennywise-" Jordan filled in.

"Isn't ruh..heal..." Cassandra finished. "There was something else as well they had both spelled out 'Dead-lights' in their own blood."

"But they were killed-"

"Yes I know instantly, it's so weird." After they had all grieved over their lost member's 'number six and seven' they started to talk again.

"So what do you still think about discussing Damien Senate?" Smiled Luke taking another sip from his drink.

"How are you getting on with your football?" Cassandra asked John totally ignoring Luke's question.

"I said, 'Why don't we discuss Damien Senate?' Hmm?" Luke repeated, Cassandra turned around her eyes blazing and her inside churning, her heat thumped so loud she though that if she was quiet they would possibly hear it.

"Well I don't want to discuss it." She turned away from him. 

"Scared he'll come and get you? For god's sake Cassandra he's locked away in......Juniper Hill's, oh...oh no!...He..he's..."

"No he's not Luke, don't you read the paper?" She took the evening paper and held it up to his face. He read the main headline 'Patient escapes!!' "Luke, I'm scared to f*****g death! He's got it in for all of us!! Do you hear me......Every single one of us, if IT doesn't get us......he will. He's EVIL!!" Luke paused for a minute.

"It's amazing at how well you can turn that stutter on and off..." He smiled, then everyone laughed. "We'll call the cops!"

"The cops! Be serious Luke, we've got a demon from hell and a psychotic 'mental' patient chasing and threatening to kill us!" John laughed at the pure stupidness of the situation. "What are we gonna tell the cops? Oh excuse me sir, but there's a psychopath and Satan's reincarnation into Ronald McDonald waiting to kill us, could you arrest them? -Why sure but first make sure Ronald gets me extra large fries when I order 'em next time!! How are they gonna read the rights? -You have violated code number 465, by terrorising children and killing them in horrible ways and by selling meat on the bone giving people e-coli, don't do it next time."

"John that's enough!!" As soon as Ruth had shouted this everyone took a huge breath and nearly collapsed. They had all fallen into the same flashback.

_'That's enough!!' Ruth said forcing the three fighting boys to the floor. Luke lashed out for Jordan laughing uncontrollably, while the other two laughed holding their stomach's to stop them from aching. 'Anyone who wouldn't know you guys would think that you're __on drugs or high or somet!' She giggled getting up._

_Mary and Tim sat in the corner packing everyone's bag's for the big day out, back to summer camp, after all since it had been closed down a few week's early they could get in without being seen or by getting into any trouble. __They smiled at each other, but Tim shivered nervously and Mary hugged him._

_'Hey....Guys, it's Cassandra..' Jordan ran to the club base door and unlatched it, he pulled her into the van with her hands in his. Over her shoulder was an old knitted bag with tassels on it._

_'You didn't need to bring anything, we've got all the stuff....' Mary said standing up and handing her a carrier bag. She sat on the floor and started to unpack something from her bag._

_'Cuh...Close your eyes guys.' She said nervously. 'Hold out the hun..hand you ru..write with.' They all held out their hands obediently in complete silence. Cassandra took John's hand and pulled  something round his wrist, when he opened his eyes he saw a black friendship band with blue beads on it. Next she gave Ruth the same band but with yellow coloured bead's. When she had finished they all had a different one. Luke's was purple. Jordan's orange, Mary's pink, Tim's white and finally her's red._

_'If we uh..all keep these on we..we'll be protected, I muh..made them thinking of eh..each of you when I put the b..b..bead's on, there's seven on each ba..band, one for each of us.........I don't want eh..any of us to be ah...ah...apart.........ever, coz you're like my sister's and my buh...buh..brother's.' Cassandra tried hard not to cry but they all ended up in a group hug._

_'All for one, and one for all?' Luke asked._

_'All for one and one for all!!' They all shouted._

_'Let's go..' Tim said innocently._

_As they walked through the town to the nearest bus stop they passed the city hall where, news reporters were gathered near huge crowd's of people, suddenly Cassandra started to slow down and look into the crowd. The group of children stopped and peered into the crowd with her._

_'What is it?' Mary asked pushing in up to where her father, who worked in the city hall as a security guard, and was stood trying to keep away the camera's._

_'I thought you were supposed to be on a trip?' He said suspiciously._

_'Were going in a minute, why's the media here?' Mary liked to be cleaver and sound good so she used big word's._

_'Oh, that's okay then.....It's that boy from your school, Damien something or other, he's been sentenced to life in Juniper hill's! It's gonna be all over the paper's by tomorrow, he's barking mad, talking about some clown? But he's definitely guilty, he admitted it.....Finger prints all over the body. You'll miss your bus, go on, run along now.' Mary forced her way back through the crowd to the other's and waved to her father._

_'It's Damien! He's getting life in Joon's!! Dad says he's deranged, psychotic!' The other's were surprised but they expected it sooner or later. A large white van with Juniper Hill's written in bold black letter's pulled up outside the city and the media swarmed round it like bee's with a hive, the city hall door's opened and a shockingly quiet silence shoot through for a few moments, guard's and police officers surrounded someone and suddenly the noise loud and furious broke through and the reporter's tried to push their way through to what the police were protecting. Cassandra ran towards the crowd but Jordan held her back._

_'DAMIEN!!!' She shouted struggling. 'They can't take him away! YOU DIDN'T DO IT!!' She shouted to him, Jordan shook her._

_'Cassandra, get a grip!! You're hysterical! He admitted it, we know he didn't do it, but who's gonna listen to us? Who? The police, our mum's? Our dad's? They'll lock us away too! He's safe but the rest of us and all the kids in Derry's lives are still threatened!' Cassandra looked over at the van, as the guard's pushed him into it he looked at her, his eyes blue and vacant, 'Blue?' She whispered to herself. 'But...his eyes are dark?' Cassandra was dumbfounded. But then Jordan pulled her and they all ran down the pavement as the van passed them at the traffic light's but little did they know they hadn't seen the  last of Damien Senate. _

_They spotted a bus waiting, it was the one that would take them straight to Camp Silverlake and to IT!_

_As they trudged through the wood's, deep into the forest where Damien had encountered the strange beast the talked trying to take their mind's off what awaited them._

_'...I bet you a dollar!' John whispered to Luke._

_'Don't she might hear us.' Luke answered back strictly looking round at Jordan who was walking straight behind them._

_'What're you talking about?' Jordan asked._

_'Well I bet Luke a dollar that....' John whispered in Jordan's ear. '...But he's to chicken coz he knows I'll win him-'_

_'-No you won't!' Luke snapped._

_'That's a horrible thing to bet about! I thought you were her friend?!' Jordan answered in disgust._

_'I am but I bet she did!' John said nodding. 'Ruth and Mary said they heard something near the lake.....I bet it was-'_

_'Look will you stop it it's really horrible John!!' Jordan shouted._

_'What's wrong?' Ruth asked walking over and stopping them dead in their tracks._

_'It's John he's being really horrible to Cassandra, he's betting Luke that Cassandra did it with Damien Senate!!' Jordan exclaimed._

_'That's horrible!' Ruth said._

_'But it's true....Isn't it.' Everyone looked round at Cassandra and she stood on her own then opened her mouth._

_'No.'-_

-"You know I wasn't lying to you." Cassandra said stopping Luke from telling them the rest of the story.

"So you didn't do it with him?" Jordan asked relieved.

"No. But he sort of tried to force me to."

"What was it like?" Ruth asked grinning and leaning on the table where they were all now sat-

_-'At fuh..first I was really scared, but thu...then I realised that I really wanted tuh..tuh..to........But then I thought ah..about it and decided that it wasn't the right thing tuh..to do, I tried to get away but it was nuh..no use, he'd gagged me. But then I got away. After that I didn't regret getting away from him.'_

_'You like Damien then?' Jordan disapproved._

_'I duh..don't know what I lu..like Jordan, but I do like you guh..guys.' Cassandra hugged Jordan then Ruth joined in and the other's too._

_'Let's get going!!' John shouted._

-"So, you wanted to do it with him?" Ruth asked.

"For a first time, yes, It would have been incredible."

"Did you ever do it after that?" John asked.

".....No, not really, I did'nt have time. There wasn't anyone who really liked me, or who I liked." Cassandra looked around and Jordan turned away-

_-As the seven friends carried on towards the lake, John turned around suspiciously but then shook his head and went on. 'Were they being followed?' They all thought to themselves at some point. Luke also turned back and thought he had noticed something, maybe just wildlife, or something else?_

_'Look!' Tim gasped taking a step back, it was the lake, but they were further downstream than they were supposedly allowed. Tim was the first to notice the humongous building. A huge building devoted wholelly to Derry's sewer and garbage._

_'That place is creepy...' Tim shivered holding Mary's hand tightly._

_'We have to do this, the kids in Derry are losing their lives, this will be us doing our part in Derry's history-' Luke said._

_'I don't care whu..what happens, but pruh..omise me, we'll nuh..never have kids, that'll share thu suh....suh same tuh..terror as we have....' Cassandra said emotionally, with fear in her breath. Luke grabbed her and hugged her ferociously._

_'It's okay to be scared......Were all in the same position, I'm scared to f*****g death!' Jordan said joining in the big hug._

_Everyone else joined in and they stood there for about thirty seconds which seemed like hours to them, seven scared kid's, at the beginning of their lives, ready to take on death like knights in shining armour, going to kill the dragon......The dragon that was waiting for them in their deepest nightmare's, in the sewer....._

"Okay thats enough! That mother f*****g son of a b***h has wormed his way back here, but we killed him!" John shouted raising from his seat frantically. He put his hands over his ears and shook his head. "We're grown adults for gods sake!" He reminded them. "There is no Pennywise!!" He shouted again.

"Yes! Yes there is, and he's right here in Derry!" Ruth said joining in on his little argument.

"Not he..." Cassandra said, they all looked at her. "....It..." She finished. Everyone calmed down and the morbidness returned.

"IT!" Luke shouted in disgust.

"I think we should all eat now, I'm starved!" Cassandra suggested and suddenly there was an uproar in the room as everyone agreed. They called for the waiter and all ordered their food, they all started to talk happily remembering when they were younger and all the things they did. As the waiters brought their food and drink a warm atmosphere formed in the small cosy room.

"Cassandra, why did you stay behind?" Jordan asked swallowing a piece of meat.

"I had to. This is my town, and although I had one bad summer, it did'nt mean I had to give it up over some stupid childhood imagination. I was the lighthouse, I warned you all." Cassandra told them.

"It was more than that..." Jordan said swallowing hard. "..It was Damien wasn't it?" He carried on looking at her slyly sipping his drink. ".He wanted you to stay."-

-_'Please Cassandra! I don't want you to go!' Damien pleaded to her taking her hand.-_

-Cassandra shook her head fiercely and laughed at him. "That was just a coincidence. It never meant anything." She disagreed-

_-'What about camp, I saved you, did'nt that mean anything to you?' He whispered to her quietly so the guards couldn't hear.-_

-"I never stayed because of him." She told him once more looking confused at him. She turned to face the others who were half drunk and had finished every piece of food on the table. Luke stared aimlessly at the sealing in some weird dream, he was somewhere else. Ruth knocked back another Vodka. While John sipped his Beer through a straw, he was the best at getting drunk. "Why do you ask Jordan? Are you jealous of Damien?"-

-'Cassandra I don't like Damien, he'll hurt you! He's trying to kill us all, if you ask me, he's crazy!'-

-"Did you hear me Cassandra? I said he's crazy. Why else would he kill guards and escape? Because he knows that we're all back here. Because now he knows what our weaknesses are!" Jordan told her.

"You are jealous!" she said quietly. "I've just figured it out! Because I'm sticking up for Damien. I remember you telling me, when we were at camp. Do you remember, you were my best friend so I thought it was just friendly advice to stay away from him, but you saw him as competition…"

"You've been my friend for thirty-six years, Cassandra, and when I was twelve I found out how much I really did like you and from that day on, I've waited for you, all my life I've wanted to say….I love-"

"Don't say it Jordan. Save all your love and give it to someone else."

"But why?" Jordan asked upset.

Cassandra paused. "Because I don't return your love. I love you in a manner that you are one of my closest friends and you've been like a brother to me all these years-"

"No! No! No!! All my life I waited and waited for you, and now you tell me that I'm like you're brother, you've hurt me Cassandra! I can't believe! I've wasted my life chasing you, when offers are thrown at me from every angle! And I refused them…Please reconsider?" He said in a mad flurry.

"I can't. We're just friends." Cassandra argued.

"And you love psycho Senate." Jordan said stomping out of the room.

Cassandra looked around and saw them all staring at her. "I think we all better crash, or we'll end up going to sleep down here." Cassandra told them and they all nodded. "You're all in a single room. If you go to the desk tell them you're names and they'll give you a key each with the room number on."

One by one everyone made their way out of the small restaurant room. Leaving Cassandra sat down on her own to pick up the bill. She sat there for a little while until she was approached by the waiter.

"There you go Miss Wyatt. I know you've been very busy at work." He grinned gingerly handing her the small white piece of paper.

Cassandra slowly brought it to eye level and stared at it in horror.

'$184.69cents.' It read.

"One hundred and eighty four dollars and sixty nine cents!" she shouted at the waiter who was lingering above her. "What a rip off!" she said loudly.

"I'm so sorry." He smiled.

Cassandra pulled out her wallet and handed him the small card of plastic. "I'm so glad that I won the lottery a few years back." She smiled. The waiter frowned, straightened his face and then took it and charged it on the card.

Then she walked out and went up to her room.


End file.
